Not what I was after.

I can't complain at all. Ok I've not even been fishing once since me and my lad went out last week but you can't expect to go fishing everyday. You can hope, but it doesn't happen, especially if you've got a house and family to run. Though you'd expect with me having a week off work I'd have plenty of time to go fishing but that's not the case. We've finally got the plumber in installing a new bathroom and a fancy shower and since he's a mate I've given him a bit of a hand every now and again. I suppose I could have had a chance to get out either early morning or late at night but that hasn't happened up until this evening. Actually I was wide awake at 5am this morning but since it was still dark I just laid there for a bit and then the next thing I know it's half seven and it's too late to have an early morning trip. Anyway, enough with the violin, as I said, I finally got out tonight.

I think it was about ten to seven when I got to the bank. As the nights are already drawing in fast that didn't leave me long, just over an hour or so. All the way to the river I wasn't even sure where I was going or what I was going to fish for. I've tried to stay away from the pike through this hot weather, it's been just too much and not the weather to be fishing for them. Today wasn't so bad, but on the drive to the river I still felt that with the river level low it may be not quite right yet. So by default I ended up with the ultra light gear chasing perch. As soon as I'd made my mind up I was quite looking forward to it. I would be fishing a bit of river I hadn't really had much success with the light lures, well not consistent anyway. I've had some nice fish and some action packed sessions but they are often outnumbered by the blanks. Even if it was to be another blank I wouldn't be out long. I fancied a fish or two. The fry is now at a decent size and big enough to be tempting most predators.

As I grabbed the gear from the car I noticed I still had on a two and half inch white Kopyto on a seven gram jig head, left there from the trip with my lad. Walking down the bank I decided to stick with it even though I usually start with a shallow lure such as a spinner or a small plug. First cast out and it went straight out in front of me about twenty yards. I tried to keep it up in the water as I always fear a snag or two on rivers, and then as the lure came in to view over about four feet of water just ten feet out I saw a fish. I'm still amazed at how a pike can be laid on the bottom in pretty clear water and still not be noticed until it moves. This pike just casually lurched up off the bottom and sucked in the Kopyto. I can remember thinking it was a nice fish and as the battle started all I kept seeing was the back end of the fish and the tail waving at me, so I couldn't really see that much of it's size but from the few glimpses I got I was happy I'd hooked a double even if it was a scraper double.

I found myself having more and more of a fight with this fish. When I expected to start to get the upper hand, instead it seemed the pike was just fighting a little harder and then as I put on a bit more pressure the fish gave me more back. As I started to see a little more of the fish, I noticed the rod bent double and I realised my arm was aching a little. I think I'm way off with my scraper double prediction, this is actually a nice fish. This fish tore up the swim. I could do naff all when it made use of it's size and weight and just had to watch as the rod bent more and the reel screamed louder. I've done a few doubles on this light rod but the biggest has been fourteen pound and this fish was fighting way harder than any other fish I've had on it. Finally I could see the end in sight but even though I had the fish close, the first couple of net attempts had to be called off as the fish gathered up more strength. Finally it was sliding over the net and I was chuffed. What a fish, and at sixteen pound it is my biggest fish on the light gear. I hadn't come to target a big pike on the light gear, but there's no way I was complaining with this result.

The rest of the session wasn't quite as spectacular but I did get a few fish. The big perch weren't here but I grabbed a few small perch to about eight ounces. Most of the time I was plucking one perch from a troop of about ten, which were all smashing the lure at the same time, but it would then go quiet after that one fish. It was good fun though and a couple of times I just left the lure dangling to watch them all fighting to get it, ripping it out of one another's mouth. I also managed a couple more pike, one at five and one at six pound. Though again, neither were fish I'd expected. The first fell to my Super Vibrax spinner. I'd spotted something taking off the surface and wondered if it were chub and so went for a shallow spinner past their nose. The second fish I'd seen a commotion from fry, from what I hoped were perch chasing them up near the surface. This time I opted for one of Mark Houghtons little minnow lures and as It went past the area I'd seen the fry, a pike shot up from the depths and engulfed the lure, also clearing the water by a good foot in the process. So no big perch or even bonus chub, but I'm certainly not complaining.